11 ms·

Veteran's Hospital LSD Testing (1956) [video]

182 points by Abundnce10 12y ago

stuaxo 12y ago
She is pretty terrible at describing whats happening to her.
- duderific 12y ago
  I actually think she's doing a pretty tremendous job. If you've ever taken LSD, and tried to explain what it's like to someone who hasn't, then you know how difficult it is to describe. Even trying to speak coherently when you're tripping balls is pretty challenging.
  - girvo 12y ago
    Whenever I've tripped (over 50 times in the past 8 years, though not for a while as I moved away from that scene) there was a 3-4 hour period where I would just not talk. At all.
- easternwest 12y ago
  Perhaps you're terrible at understanding. I'm not trying to be insulting, I just don't think it's something that can be explained to someone who hasn't tripped. For what it's worth everything she described made me think "yup, I know exactly what you mean".
- smoovej 12y ago
  If you've ever read Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, you'll remember how difficult it was for The Square to describe his experiences to the other two dimensional beings after visiting Spaceland (a three dimensional world). This woman faces a similar challenge, and I think she does remarkably well. If you haven't read Flatland, I highly recommend you do so. While on acid, of course.
erokar 12y ago
Subject (2:50): "I can see everything in color." I knew it! Everything really was black and white back then. Except when you took LSD.
- cgs1019 12y ago
  http://www.flickfilosopher.com/wptest/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/calvinhobbescolor.gif http://www.flickfilosopher.com/wptest/wp-content/uploads/201...
- con-templative 12y ago
  I think if we attempt to look past her poor explanation, she appears to be experiencing something that she has no obvious rational concept to communicate, and so when asked to relate the experience in rational concepts she does know, she has unhelpfully hit on "color". To be fair to her, she does say several times that she cannot explain it. It reminds me of this passage from Lord of Light: http://people.nas.nasa.gov/~pulliam/lord_of_light.html http://people.nas.nasa.gov/~pulliam/lord_of_light.html
  - samatman 12y ago
    Can confirm!
  - ngcazz 12y ago
    That's a beautiful passage. Thanks for the link. Reminded me of Fernando Pessoa's writings as Alberto Caeiro.
djrtwo 12y ago
That clip left me with so many questions. What was the purpose of the dosing? Did they follow up with her? Was there a lasting change in her life? Seems like it must have been radically jarring to her 1950s housewife societal role.
- tomasien 12y ago
  I think the truly fascinating thing about acid is that is does have an impact but it's somehow not that jarring, given what it is.
  - razster 12y ago
    Same can be said for shrooms, which I believe open up the minds creative side. Nothing jarring though or deeply life changing.
  - djrtwo 12y ago
    Jarring might have been the wrong word. I meant instead that the 6-10 hour eye opening experience would have likely caused her to question a lot of things about her life. Sometimes the questions you ask during an acid experience impact how you view yourself and your situation outside of the experience. Being a 1950s housewife, those questions and realizations might not be coherent with her expected role.
- kirsebaer 12y ago
  She goes to sleep and dreams every night. People, including "housewives", are way less fragile than you might imagine.
easternwest 12y ago
"I can't tell you about it. If you can't see it then you'll just never know it. I feel sorry or you." This is a succinct summary of my own experiences. LSD basically makes you realize just how much of a slave you are to your own biology, and the kind of unrestrained thoughts it elicits cannot readily be translated to everyday frameworks. Nobody who's never tripped can comprehend what it's like to trip. Still, it can help you learn lessons if you make a point to do so. I recall LSD trips whenever I feel stressed or depressed, and it works really well to make me realize how little my problems matter in the grand scheme of things.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
navyrain 12y ago
When I see videos like this, or read other experiences of LSD, I wonder if I'm not missing out on something. LSD, uniquely amongst mainstream recreational drugs, seems to have the promise of an outright transcendental upside, with supposedly little downside. It saddens me that there is no safe and legal way for me to try it.
- eljojo 12y ago
  I totally feel you (no pun intended). same thing here.
- skjsjsnsnsms 12y ago
  Is there really little downside? Anecdotally, I've heard from friends in the jamband scene about friends who did LSD who came back "completely changed , and not in a good way."
  - ugexe 12y ago
    There is really little downside. Anecdotally i've heard people say marijuana will get you addicted to harder drugs, will turn you into a melted couch blob, etc.
    - skjsjsnsnsms 12y ago
      Straw man argument is made of straw. I'm speaking of word of mouth from informed, trusted friends, not what I heard from those who have an agenda have to say on fox news.
      - ugexe 12y ago
        Ironically you are straw manning my own argument which was also from experienced drug users
  - toolz 12y ago
    I imagine there is a lot of confirmation bias going on with stories like that. Drugs are seen almost universally as taboo, so people want to see the bad things that may happen and when people want to see something, exaggerations tend to happen. I'm not saying your friends weren't changed for the worse, but I do know I've never met someone who was proud to be an LSD user. As such I have to conclude that people choose to speak poorly about LSD, which in turn means we all hear more horror stories than feel good endings.
saganus 12y ago
Around 5:18 she says "I wish I could talk in Technicolor". I think that shows how much of an impression LSD made, as well as what it meant at that time for a housewife to watch a movie in Technicolor. To me, it seems that she is trying to say that the difference between watching a movie in B/W and then in Technicolor, would be similar as being sober and then taking LSD.
mattmcegg 12y ago
I highly recommend Neurons to Nirvana (on Netflix) for anyone interested in learning more about this and other psychedelics. http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70309247 http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70309247
chriscappuccio 12y ago
AL-LAD is quasi-legal in most parts of the world and easily available online. That might be interesting for people who want a similar experience.
joeyspn 12y ago
A trip can't be explained. You have to live it. From what I remember from my few experiences during my adolescence, a nice trip feels (visually) something similar to this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1sZ_vwqwcE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1sZ_vwqwcE. Pixelation, fractals and weird japanese voices included… =) I don’t think I will ever repeat it, and I don’t think I need it. I was very fortunate to try it before my 20s. That level of introspection and decoupling from reality changes your point of view for the rest of your life, so I think I got all the benefits quite early. I became more creative, in fact I excelled in creativity in the Uni. I would easily come up with engineering and design solutions that my professors couldn’t even imagine. I really think LSD made be a better problem solver. Steve Jobs (and many prominent artists like The Beatles) liked it for a reason… Here's one of Jobs quotes: “Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important—creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.” ― Steve Jobs Think about what that means…
- fragmede 12y ago
  The whole "can't be explained" thing is really annoying. Visually, a trip is very similar to this gif http://i.imgur.com/w9ygNoP.gif http://i.imgur.com/w9ygNoP.gif Mentally, it's like a series of breakthroughs you'd get after years of therapy wrapped up into a couple hours. You have to give people some explanation, otherwise we'll never progress past "I heard Lucy makes people go crazy and they think they can fly so they jump off the Golden Gate Bridge".
  - stef25 12y ago
    That's the only gif I've seen that illustrates the visual part of tripping quite well
  - refurb 12y ago
    I think the sensory changes are easy to explain, but the psychological ones are harder. One way i've heard it explained is that it allows you to look at yourself and your life without being you. That is, it puts you in a state that somewhat strips away the filtering mechanism of your ego. You can look at an issue/idea/concern without your brain immediately reacting to it because of who you are. That said you can also have a lot of "revelations" that seem profound when in that state, but seem pretty silly when sober.
auganov 12y ago
Just sounds like radically heightened synaesthesia and sensory sensitivity. With a bit of focus you can start seeing the colors floating in the air she's talking about. Stare at a wall. Focus only on the vision itself, the image rendered to your consciousness if you will. Focus on the grain/noise/vibration in it. Try to "amplify" it as much as possible. Look at the patterns that form. There's gonna be some color here and there. Amplify again, rinse and repeat. If you're lucky other senses will follow. When I first "discovered" it I felt very similar to the person in the video. Pretty curious if it is indeed a similar experience.
- refurb 12y ago
  The other thing you can do is close your eyes and put gentle pressure on you eyeballs. You'll start to see moving patterns emerging in the dark.
  - JetSpiegel 12y ago
    Just don't use pointed sticks like Newton.
datashovel 12y ago
For anyone sharing their personal experiences, I would recommend looking at the following video. For the impatient, forward the video to around 3:45. http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke...
- joeyspn 12y ago
  Awesome video. Thanks for posting it...
avodonosov 12y ago
Interesting, although today videos of people on drugs are widely available. There is nothing transcendental or mind opening in the "special effects" she is experiencing, caused by short circuiting in her mental device. Even people who get high by inhaling fumes of toxic chemicals (varnishes, paints, solvents, ether, gasoline, etc) report similar or even more "amazing" things.
- kirsebaer 12y ago
  Most psychedelic users would say that the visual or sensory effects are not really the important thing. On psychedelics people can reimagine their concepts of self and universe. They can think about problems in what many feel is a totally new way of thinking. In recent studies at Johns Hopkins, most volunteers described psilocybin (magic mushrooms, similar to LSD) as one of the most personally and spiritually meaningful experiences of their lives, comparable to the birth of their first child.
kristofferR 12y ago
Neurons to Nirvana is a fantastic recent documentary about psychedelics. Worth checking out, it's on Amazon, iTunes and Netflix. Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EpFWLrMhn0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EpFWLrMhn0
taivare 12y ago
Its like skydiving its hard to truly explain the feeling to someone who hasn't experienced it.
_bdog 12y ago
I'm never sure what to make of people praising the therapeutic value and giving statements like "it's like a series of breakthroughs you'd get after years of therapy wrapped up into a couple hours.". LSD, like other psychedelic drugs (Psilocybin, MDMA, DMT, ...), floods the brain with (mimics of) neurotransmitters, enabling it to make (almost arbitrary) connections. Hence the synesthesia. It's "therapeutic" effect stems from the fact that the brain/mind/consciousness is leaving the treaded paths it usually takes "automatically" and forms (forces) new trains of thoughts. Hence the fascination: People are used to their brains working in a particular way, sorting your experiences into "proper" categories, and are stunned when they realize that they can actually process information in completely different ways as well. This is what people mean talking about "filters" being "removed". Aldous Huxley popularized this idea in "The doors of Perception". Different medications like SSRIs have this effect as well, but by magnitudes less strong. It's a torrent of thought(fragments) that your brain switches through on this drug. There might be some in there that actually help you cope with a problem you had in your life, but there are lot of "useless" bits as well. So what taking LSD does is giving you a perspective you haven't had before. This might be of therapeutic value, but so can be other experiences you haven't had before. Like living in a monastery in Tibet. Getting a baby. Seeing a fellow soldier getting killed in the field. Not sleeping for 70 hours. I'm sceptical of the praises because: * LSD doesn't make your prior brain-structure go away. It softens it and forms new paths, but chances are high that you go back feeling the same and thinking the same as before. True therapeutic progress is always slow and iterative, because that way it is stable and lasting. Slamming the psychedelic hammer onto your mind knocks you out of your path, but the experience can't be integrated that well because it usually is too random. Also the iterative approach (meditating, behavioural therapy) makes your brain actually start to produce the neurotransmitters needed to form the desired thoughts. * People usually feel really well for some time after taking this. This is logical, because they realized that their mind isn't as immutable and frozen as they were afraid it is. Also on strong serotonergic agents like LSD you also experience bodily effects like low to moderate fever (which you don't feel cause you're somewhere else). This can culminate in a serotonin-syndrome [1] [2]. When coming down from this condition it's naturally that you feel well, like you would "coming down" from food-poisoning. What I find really interesting are two common emotions/feelings that people on psychedelic drugs experience: * Spontaneous insight: that all the things they are experiencing are "true", "right", "eternal". Also "sacred" or "holy". * All the things around are alive, vibrant, conscious. I would like to know what in the mind actually produces the feeling of "truth" and what in the mind discerns between "conscious" and "unconscious" things. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin_syndrome [2] This is actually the main reason for people dying while partying on MDMA/ecstasy: their organs overheat.
unimportant 12y ago
Reminds me of the appalling CIA MK Ultra program in the 50s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra#LSD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra#LSD

182 points by Abundnce10 12y ago

stuaxo 12y ago

She is pretty terrible at describing whats happening to her.

duderific 12y ago
I actually think she's doing a pretty tremendous job. If you've ever taken LSD, and tried to explain what it's like to someone who hasn't, then you know how difficult it is to describe. Even trying to speak coherently when you're tripping balls is pretty challenging.
- girvo 12y ago
  Whenever I've tripped (over 50 times in the past 8 years, though not for a while as I moved away from that scene) there was a 3-4 hour period where I would just not talk. At all.
easternwest 12y ago
Perhaps you're terrible at understanding. I'm not trying to be insulting, I just don't think it's something that can be explained to someone who hasn't tripped. For what it's worth everything she described made me think "yup, I know exactly what you mean".
smoovej 12y ago
If you've ever read Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, you'll remember how difficult it was for The Square to describe his experiences to the other two dimensional beings after visiting Spaceland (a three dimensional world). This woman faces a similar challenge, and I think she does remarkably well. If you haven't read Flatland, I highly recommend you do so. While on acid, of course.

erokar 12y ago

Subject (2:50): "I can see everything in color." I knew it! Everything really was black and white back then. Except when you took LSD.

cgs1019 12y ago
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/wptest/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/calvinhobbescolor.gif http://www.flickfilosopher.com/wptest/wp-content/uploads/201...
con-templative 12y ago
I think if we attempt to look past her poor explanation, she appears to be experiencing something that she has no obvious rational concept to communicate, and so when asked to relate the experience in rational concepts she does know, she has unhelpfully hit on "color". To be fair to her, she does say several times that she cannot explain it. It reminds me of this passage from Lord of Light: http://people.nas.nasa.gov/~pulliam/lord_of_light.html http://people.nas.nasa.gov/~pulliam/lord_of_light.html
- samatman 12y ago
  Can confirm!
- ngcazz 12y ago
  That's a beautiful passage. Thanks for the link. Reminded me of Fernando Pessoa's writings as Alberto Caeiro.

djrtwo 12y ago

That clip left me with so many questions. What was the purpose of the dosing? Did they follow up with her? Was there a lasting change in her life? Seems like it must have been radically jarring to her 1950s housewife societal role.

tomasien 12y ago
I think the truly fascinating thing about acid is that is does have an impact but it's somehow not that jarring, given what it is.
- razster 12y ago
  Same can be said for shrooms, which I believe open up the minds creative side. Nothing jarring though or deeply life changing.
- djrtwo 12y ago
  Jarring might have been the wrong word. I meant instead that the 6-10 hour eye opening experience would have likely caused her to question a lot of things about her life. Sometimes the questions you ask during an acid experience impact how you view yourself and your situation outside of the experience. Being a 1950s housewife, those questions and realizations might not be coherent with her expected role.
kirsebaer 12y ago
She goes to sleep and dreams every night. People, including "housewives", are way less fragile than you might imagine.

easternwest 12y ago

"I can't tell you about it. If you can't see it then you'll just never know it. I feel sorry or you." This is a succinct summary of my own experiences. LSD basically makes you realize just how much of a slave you are to your own biology, and the kind of unrestrained thoughts it elicits cannot readily be translated to everyday frameworks. Nobody who's never tripped can comprehend what it's like to trip. Still, it can help you learn lessons if you make a point to do so. I recall LSD trips whenever I feel stressed or depressed, and it works really well to make me realize how little my problems matter in the grand scheme of things.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

navyrain 12y ago

When I see videos like this, or read other experiences of LSD, I wonder if I'm not missing out on something. LSD, uniquely amongst mainstream recreational drugs, seems to have the promise of an outright transcendental upside, with supposedly little downside. It saddens me that there is no safe and legal way for me to try it.

eljojo 12y ago
I totally feel you (no pun intended). same thing here.
skjsjsnsnsms 12y ago
Is there really little downside? Anecdotally, I've heard from friends in the jamband scene about friends who did LSD who came back "completely changed , and not in a good way."
- ugexe 12y ago
  There is really little downside. Anecdotally i've heard people say marijuana will get you addicted to harder drugs, will turn you into a melted couch blob, etc.
  - skjsjsnsnsms 12y ago
    Straw man argument is made of straw. I'm speaking of word of mouth from informed, trusted friends, not what I heard from those who have an agenda have to say on fox news.
    - ugexe 12y ago
      Ironically you are straw manning my own argument which was also from experienced drug users
- toolz 12y ago
  I imagine there is a lot of confirmation bias going on with stories like that. Drugs are seen almost universally as taboo, so people want to see the bad things that may happen and when people want to see something, exaggerations tend to happen. I'm not saying your friends weren't changed for the worse, but I do know I've never met someone who was proud to be an LSD user. As such I have to conclude that people choose to speak poorly about LSD, which in turn means we all hear more horror stories than feel good endings.

saganus 12y ago

Around 5:18 she says "I wish I could talk in Technicolor". I think that shows how much of an impression LSD made, as well as what it meant at that time for a housewife to watch a movie in Technicolor. To me, it seems that she is trying to say that the difference between watching a movie in B/W and then in Technicolor, would be similar as being sober and then taking LSD.

mattmcegg 12y ago

I highly recommend Neurons to Nirvana (on Netflix) for anyone interested in learning more about this and other psychedelics. http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70309247 http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70309247

chriscappuccio 12y ago

AL-LAD is quasi-legal in most parts of the world and easily available online. That might be interesting for people who want a similar experience.

joeyspn 12y ago

A trip can't be explained. You have to live it. From what I remember from my few experiences during my adolescence, a nice trip feels (visually) something similar to this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1sZ_vwqwcE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1sZ_vwqwcE. Pixelation, fractals and weird japanese voices included… =) I don’t think I will ever repeat it, and I don’t think I need it. I was very fortunate to try it before my 20s. That level of introspection and decoupling from reality changes your point of view for the rest of your life, so I think I got all the benefits quite early. I became more creative, in fact I excelled in creativity in the Uni. I would easily come up with engineering and design solutions that my professors couldn’t even imagine. I really think LSD made be a better problem solver. Steve Jobs (and many prominent artists like The Beatles) liked it for a reason… Here's one of Jobs quotes: “Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important—creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.” ― Steve Jobs Think about what that means…

fragmede 12y ago
The whole "can't be explained" thing is really annoying. Visually, a trip is very similar to this gif http://i.imgur.com/w9ygNoP.gif http://i.imgur.com/w9ygNoP.gif Mentally, it's like a series of breakthroughs you'd get after years of therapy wrapped up into a couple hours. You have to give people some explanation, otherwise we'll never progress past "I heard Lucy makes people go crazy and they think they can fly so they jump off the Golden Gate Bridge".
- stef25 12y ago
  That's the only gif I've seen that illustrates the visual part of tripping quite well
- refurb 12y ago
  I think the sensory changes are easy to explain, but the psychological ones are harder. One way i've heard it explained is that it allows you to look at yourself and your life without being you. That is, it puts you in a state that somewhat strips away the filtering mechanism of your ego. You can look at an issue/idea/concern without your brain immediately reacting to it because of who you are. That said you can also have a lot of "revelations" that seem profound when in that state, but seem pretty silly when sober.

auganov 12y ago

Just sounds like radically heightened synaesthesia and sensory sensitivity. With a bit of focus you can start seeing the colors floating in the air she's talking about. Stare at a wall. Focus only on the vision itself, the image rendered to your consciousness if you will. Focus on the grain/noise/vibration in it. Try to "amplify" it as much as possible. Look at the patterns that form. There's gonna be some color here and there. Amplify again, rinse and repeat. If you're lucky other senses will follow. When I first "discovered" it I felt very similar to the person in the video. Pretty curious if it is indeed a similar experience.

refurb 12y ago
The other thing you can do is close your eyes and put gentle pressure on you eyeballs. You'll start to see moving patterns emerging in the dark.
- JetSpiegel 12y ago
  Just don't use pointed sticks like Newton.

datashovel 12y ago

For anyone sharing their personal experiences, I would recommend looking at the following video. For the impatient, forward the video to around 3:45. http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke...

joeyspn 12y ago
Awesome video. Thanks for posting it...

avodonosov 12y ago

Interesting, although today videos of people on drugs are widely available. There is nothing transcendental or mind opening in the "special effects" she is experiencing, caused by short circuiting in her mental device. Even people who get high by inhaling fumes of toxic chemicals (varnishes, paints, solvents, ether, gasoline, etc) report similar or even more "amazing" things.

kirsebaer 12y ago
Most psychedelic users would say that the visual or sensory effects are not really the important thing. On psychedelics people can reimagine their concepts of self and universe. They can think about problems in what many feel is a totally new way of thinking. In recent studies at Johns Hopkins, most volunteers described psilocybin (magic mushrooms, similar to LSD) as one of the most personally and spiritually meaningful experiences of their lives, comparable to the birth of their first child.

kristofferR 12y ago

Neurons to Nirvana is a fantastic recent documentary about psychedelics. Worth checking out, it's on Amazon, iTunes and Netflix. Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EpFWLrMhn0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EpFWLrMhn0

taivare 12y ago

Its like skydiving its hard to truly explain the feeling to someone who hasn't experienced it.

_bdog 12y ago

I'm never sure what to make of people praising the therapeutic value and giving statements like "it's like a series of breakthroughs you'd get after years of therapy wrapped up into a couple hours.". LSD, like other psychedelic drugs (Psilocybin, MDMA, DMT, ...), floods the brain with (mimics of) neurotransmitters, enabling it to make (almost arbitrary) connections. Hence the synesthesia. It's "therapeutic" effect stems from the fact that the brain/mind/consciousness is leaving the treaded paths it usually takes "automatically" and forms (forces) new trains of thoughts. Hence the fascination: People are used to their brains working in a particular way, sorting your experiences into "proper" categories, and are stunned when they realize that they can actually process information in completely different ways as well. This is what people mean talking about "filters" being "removed". Aldous Huxley popularized this idea in "The doors of Perception". Different medications like SSRIs have this effect as well, but by magnitudes less strong. It's a torrent of thought(fragments) that your brain switches through on this drug. There might be some in there that actually help you cope with a problem you had in your life, but there are lot of "useless" bits as well. So what taking LSD does is giving you a perspective you haven't had before. This might be of therapeutic value, but so can be other experiences you haven't had before. Like living in a monastery in Tibet. Getting a baby. Seeing a fellow soldier getting killed in the field. Not sleeping for 70 hours. I'm sceptical of the praises because: * LSD doesn't make your prior brain-structure go away. It softens it and forms new paths, but chances are high that you go back feeling the same and thinking the same as before. True therapeutic progress is always slow and iterative, because that way it is stable and lasting. Slamming the psychedelic hammer onto your mind knocks you out of your path, but the experience can't be integrated that well because it usually is too random. Also the iterative approach (meditating, behavioural therapy) makes your brain actually start to produce the neurotransmitters needed to form the desired thoughts. * People usually feel really well for some time after taking this. This is logical, because they realized that their mind isn't as immutable and frozen as they were afraid it is. Also on strong serotonergic agents like LSD you also experience bodily effects like low to moderate fever (which you don't feel cause you're somewhere else). This can culminate in a serotonin-syndrome [1] [2]. When coming down from this condition it's naturally that you feel well, like you would "coming down" from food-poisoning. What I find really interesting are two common emotions/feelings that people on psychedelic drugs experience: * Spontaneous insight: that all the things they are experiencing are "true", "right", "eternal". Also "sacred" or "holy". * All the things around are alive, vibrant, conscious. I would like to know what in the mind actually produces the feeling of "truth" and what in the mind discerns between "conscious" and "unconscious" things. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin_syndrome [2] This is actually the main reason for people dying while partying on MDMA/ecstasy: their organs overheat.

unimportant 12y ago

Reminds me of the appalling CIA MK Ultra program in the 50s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra#LSD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra#LSD